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An academic speaking in English was heckled by jeering Arabs even though there were extensive translation facilities. In the end, he spoke in Arabic.

But the peace was shortlived. There was more shouting when European historians touched on Islamic sensibilities by discussing the more liberal era when Muslim women did not wear the veil. An African Muslim was also heckled for complaining of Arab dominance of his faith.

The only Jew to speak was heard in polite silence, but it was assumed that was because he was preaching the destruction of Israel, which he described as an apostatic state: a point of view which presumably went down rather well with the audience. It was uncertain, though, how this squared with the seminar's title of "Arab-Islamic civilisations and the West: from Disagreement to Partnership".

The organisers described the event as a success but the angry tone of the debate will have disappointed Spain's new government.

The administration of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the prime minister, has set out to distance itself from, and even alienate, old allies such as the Vatican and the United States while seeking better relations with the Arab world and the Franco-German alliance in the European Union.

Mr Zapatero last month asked the United Nations secretary-general, Kofi Annan, to set up a high-level group to study the creation of a "pact of civilisations".

On the fringes of the UN General Assembly in New York, Mr Zapatero said: "This alliance would have as its fundamental objective to deepen political, cultural and educational relations between those who represent the so-called western world and, in this historic moment, the area of Arab and Muslim countries."

Spain's bloody past has recently come back to life.

Osama bin Laden and those of his allies responsible for the March 11 commuter train bombings in Madrid, which killed 190 people, have regularly referred to the pain felt by many Arabs over the loss of the Moorish lands to Christians. The last of the Moorish rulers was expelled from the Iberian peninsula in the reconquista of 1492 when Ferdinand and Isabella, Los Reyes Catolicos (The Catholic Monarchs), expelled the last of the Moorish rulers, Boabdil of Granada, from the peninsula, uniting most of what is now Spain.

Spain is divided over its Moorish legacy and, more urgently, over its Muslim present. A new debate has been opened.

While Mr Zapatero talks of dialogue, his predecessor, the conservative Jose Maria Aznar, is urging the West, and particularly Spain, to wake up to the ambitions of the religious extremists.

"There are those who think that the Madrid attacks are related to the support given by the Spanish government to the Iraq war," he said at Georgetown University in Washington this month, but he pointed out that bin Laden and others have repeatedly promised to avenge the loss of Andalusia.

Moderate Muslims such as Mr al-Babtain stress that they have no sympathy for the fanatics who wish to retake Andalusia for Islam.

But like many moderates, Mr al-Babtain laments that people of his faith cannot pray in Cordoba's former mosque which has been a cathedral since 1523.

"All three great religions - Islam, Christianity and Judaism - lived here together under our rule," he added. The mosque was shared by Christian worshippers.

Ideas like that meet little sympathy among the Right in post-March 11 Spain. This week a star columnist in the daily El Mundo declared: "Spain smells of Moors".